Join Debbie as she raves about whole foods, rants about chemicals and generally celebrates cooking and eating with fresh, local, nutritious foods. And sometimes she might get a little feisty….
I appreciate it when a restaurant celebrates, rather than undervalues, the vegetable selections of the meal. A huge hunk of meat with a spring of parsley doesn’t impress me, but I can tell you that I would be so desperate for something green on my plate — and in my belly — that I’d down that parsley like it was the last morsel of food on earth. I know, I can always order a side salad (and I do) but a good chef will accent his dishes with delectably prepared veggies that go with the entree selection.
For our wedding anniversary, Keith and I went to Ming Tsai’s restaurant, Blue Ginger. It had been several years since we’d been back there (since we moved) and a visit to one of our favorite haunts was long overdue. Now, I won’t go saying that Ming’s menu selections are all about the veggies; I was left wanting more, as always. However, he does incorporate vegetables into his dishes like all good chefs should. Let me tell you about them….
For my appetizer, I ordered the fois gras shiitake shumai in sauternes-shallot broth. This is quite possibly one of the most delicious things I have ever put into my mouth, and for just a brief moment, I considered not sharing with Keith (who saved half of his appetizer for me). As it was, I tried to trick him into believing that I had to eat two of the three because it was too hard to split one, but alas, he didn’t fall for it.
The broth was chock-full of shallots, a vegetable, and there were shiitake mushrooms in the shumai filling, but the use of vegetables I loved the most in this dish were the edamame sprinkled throughout the broth, and topping each shumai. The bright green was perfect, and I wish Keith’s cell phone took better pictures so I could share it with you.
Keith’s appetizer was tea-smoked salmon and beef carpaccio with fresh wasabi emulsion — yeah, I know. But the best part was the jicama and avocado — for lack of a better word — guacamole that was served with it. It made the raw meat refreshing; and that, my friends, is the way to serve veggies.
For dinner, I had the rice paper-wrapped salmon with lobster-sake sauce with wild mushroom risotto and shaved fennel-herb salad. The salad was heavy on the fresh cilantro and mint, which made the dish. Sure, I would have served the whole shabang on a bed of microgreens, but the cool and light fennel and herbs balanced the richness of the rest of the entree.
Keith’s dinner was the tea spiced pork loin with black bean-garlic pork belly with spring pea-wild mushroom fricassee and two basil puree. Basically, there was a huge puddle of veggies under his meat, but it was alll so… cooked. I’m voting for that bed of microgreens again to lighten things up.
I don’t know, maybe I’m too veggie-oriented if I can find fault wth Ming Tsai, arguably one of the most creative and whole-foods centric chefs out there right now. I commend Ming’s artistry and the fact that he values veggies enough to make them part of the whole (no a la carte here) but still I crave more. Do I need an intervention?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jun 18, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
